I Jess Pass-by 446! aftah Months and Months....

[mapoui]

nice read Maps!

you mean it took some guyanese to bring Calypso to TnT?? damn, we good eh!

it does always amaze me how life go. way back in the las century ah jefe blac man daughter and a jefe Indian get married and have a big family.

but look nuh though its just about a hundred years seince blac man free, Indian indenture end just in 1917. and this blac man..a big man in the westindian church and in BG - Demerara let his daughter marry a johnny come-lately no matter how high.

I wonder if he put up opposition but he daughter and Mutoo insisted anyway? interesting!

now this couple produced children all of whom appear to have been guided according to their class and became significant people. not only that but the succeeding generations all appear to be achieved people.

and the musical sons, in a trade that was compeletly inconsistent with their family class, insisted as well and were finally left alone to follow their desires.

so there they were in a sea of prejudice all round, regarding everything in life and the only consistent factor seems determination to do what all concerned wanted to do in their lives. intersting.

[mapoui]

among the westindian territories there appear to be special relationships between and amongst them.

BG Demerara- Guyana and Trinidad used to have a very tight relationship. I dont know what the state of that history is right now but it used to be strong.

same thing with Trinidad and Grenada. Antigua and barbuda with Montserrat and St Kitts.

the relationship between Trinidad and barbados was always one of great rivalry in all areas of the relationship

the relationship between Trinidad and St Vincent has been one of receptor Trinidad for vincentian migrants, not always happlily.

but I look back on those days of free regional movement with nostalgia for the growth of independence with customs and excise departments and all manner of resrictions often prejudiciously applied betwen teritories that shud be one nation, has made for terrible intra-westindian supposedly national relations.

we have bureaucratic wars where their shoudl be none at all

[BallOil]

Bally...Googs..Look at this:
http://www.ecaroh.com/profiles/muttoobrothers.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I find this looking fuh Lord Commander...whose origins and profile is proving very hard to find!

Nice lil history deh Maps... BG peeps bad bad eh?

[Googley]

BG Demerara- Guyana and Trinidad used to have a very tight relationship. I dont know what the state of that history is right now but it used to be strong.

Maps, used to is correct...today's Trini think dem better than BG peeps! oil mek dem drunk!

[mapoui]

Maps, used to is correct...today's Trini think dem better than BG peeps! oil mek dem drunk!

Benzene have the same effect on people dat rum have, from the outside. and de gyarse from point-a-pierre bun all day and night.

the pepole of titty have been breathing dat fuh more dan ah hundered years now!

[mapoui]

I cyar find much on Commander but wat I find suggest he was Trinidadian. he was a magnificent calypsonian and performer.

apparently Commander was the first to dance on stage instead of just standing and singing!

commander died a pauper, scrummaging garbage fuh ah little to eat!

heres a note from a link and an interesting author and journalist, a woman of trinidad antecedents and apparently Indian ancestry, though not born there.

In “No Crime, No Law” and “You Can’t Finish Pleasing People,” Commander sounds in tempo and lyric as if he is barreling toward the Bronx in an ancient vessel. You can almost hear it in the lyrics to “No Crime, No Law”:

I want the government of every country
Pay a criminal a big salary
And when they commit a crime
The law shouldn’t give them any long time
A police should be glad when one twist a jaw
Lock a neck, buss a face, or break open a store
He should be merry when somebody violate the law
For that is what the government is paying him for

But if somebody don’t bust somebody face
How the policeman going to make a case?
And if somebody don’t lick out somebody eye
The magistrate won’t have nobody to try
And if somebody don’t kill somebody dead
All the judges got to beg their bread
So when somebody cut off somebody head
Instead of hanging, they should pay them money instead

[mapoui]

http://www.guernicamag.com/features/944 ... wakenings/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

thats the link! and here is the author and a few words about her!

Suzanne Menghraj teaches writing in New York University’s Liberal Studies Program. “Buccaneer Days” is the second in a six-part series of essays Suzanne will write for Guernica with support from a Liberal Studies faculty grant. “Twin Peeks”, the series’s first essay, appeared on Guernica in February.

[mapoui]

I like Menghraj. she is wide and cool, flowing in a perspective of life I find accuate..that life is simly life, what we have. we know nothing befor it and beyond and must deal with up here, living it, making it as great as we can!

this is what Menghraj says immedialty after Commanders lyrics:

It’s like a jungle sometimes.

that appears straight out of the mouth of the Sugar Hill Gang, a grat early and positive message rap group frpm New York.

may not be a direct quote or she would have acknowledged it but is close enough to what Sugar Hill meant..as the same as Commander plays with the ironies of life.

The name of the Sugar Hill tune I believe is 'those are the breaks'

[mapoui]

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ho Ho Ho! I was dead wrong!

its not sugar hill who did that song it was GRANDMASTER FLASH AND THE FURIOUS FIVE
and here it is

its like a jungle sometimes!

[mapoui]

The Message Lyrics
Artist(Band):Grandmaster Flash

It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

Broken glass everywhere
People pissin' on the stairs, you know they just don't care
I can't take the smell, can't take the noise
Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back
Junkies in the alley with a baseball bat
I tried to get away but I couldn't get far
'cuz a man with a tow truck repossessed my car

Don't push me 'cuz I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to lose my head
Uh huh ha ha ha
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

Standin' on the front stoop hangin' out the window
Watchin' all the cars go by, roarin' as the breezes blow
Crazy lady, livin' in a bag
Eatin' outta garbage pails, used to be a fag had sex and
danced the tango, skip the life and dango
A Zircon princess seemed to lost her senses
Down at the peep show watchin' all the creeps
So she can tell her stories to the girls back home
She went to the city and got so so sadity
She had to get a pimp, she couldn't make it on her own

Don't push me 'cuz I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to lose my head
Uh huh ha ha ha

It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

My brother's doin' bad, stole my mother's TV
Says she watches too much, it's just not healthy
"All My Children" in the daytime, "Dallas" at night
Can't even see the game or the Sugar Ray fight
The bill collectors, they ring my phone
and scare my wife when I'm not home
Got a bum education, double-digit inflation
Can't take the train to the job, there's a strike at the station
Neon King Kong standin' on my back
Can't stop to turn around, broke my sacroiliac
A mid-range migraine, cancered membrane
Sometimes I think I'm goin' insane
I swear I might hijack a plane!

Don't push me 'cuz I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to lose my head
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

My son said, Daddy, I don't wanna go to school
'cuz the teacher's a jerk, he must think I'm a fool
And all the kids smoke reefer, I think it'd be cheaper
if I just got a job, learned to be a street sweeper
Or dance to the beat, shuffle my feet
Wear a shirt and tie and run with the creeps
'cuz it's all about money, ain't a damn thing funny
You got to have a con in this land of milk and honey
They pushed that girl in front of the train
Took her to the doctor, sewed her arm on again
Stabbed that man right in his heart
Gave him a transplant for a brand new start
I can't walk through the park 'cuz it's crazy after dark
Keep my hand on my gun 'cuz they got me on the run
I feel like a outlaw, broke my last glass jaw
Hear them say "You want some more?"
Livin' on a see-saw

Don't push me 'cuz I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to lose my head
Say what?

It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

A child is born with no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
God is smilin' on you but he's frownin' too
Because only God knows what you'll go through
You'll grow in the ghetto livin' second-rate
And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate
The places you play and where you stay
Looks like one great big alleyway
You'll admire all the number-book takers
Thugs, pimps and pushers and the big money-makers
Drivin' big cars, spendin' twenties and tens
And you'll wanna grow up to be just like them, huh
Smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers
Pickpockets, peddlers, even panhandlers
You say I'm cool, huh, I'm no fool
But then you wind up droppin' outta high school
Now you're unemployed, all non void
Walkin' round like you're Pretty Boy Floyd
Turned stick-up kid, but look what you done did
Got sent up for a eight-year bid
Now your manhood is took and you're a Maytag
Spend the next two years as a undercover fag
Bein' used and abused to serve like hell
'til one day, you was found hung dead in the cell
It was plain to see that your life was lost
You was cold and your body swung back and forth
But now your eyes sing the sad, sad song
Of how you lived so fast and died so young so...

Don't push me 'cuz I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to lose my head
Uh huh huh huh huh

It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
Huh, uh huh huh huh huh
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
Huh, uh huh huh huh huh

Laying the Groundwork | Reviewer: Chloe

A great song that any hip hop fan today should know by heart. Grandmaster flash speaks the truth and from his heart, continuing a solid legacy for rap.